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Neighbor Accused Of Using Drone To Spy On 7-Year-Old Boy

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY JORDANE BERTRAND
A picture taken on July 12, 2012 shows an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (aka drone) of French Fly-n-Sense (FNS) company, flying over Mont-de-Marsan, southwestern France, as French firefighters test it in the Landes forest region as an innovative forest surveillance system which will enable a real-time monitoring of fire outbreaks and the development of flames in French southwestern forests. AFP PHOTO PIERRE ANDRIEU (Photo credit should read PIERRE ANDRIEU/AFP/GettyImages)File photo of small drone (Pierre Andrieu/AFP/Getty Images)

VANCOUVER, Wash. (CBS Seattle) – Drones can be used for many things, and according to one boy, spying is one of them.

According to KATU, 7-year-old Drew Sikorski believes he was being spied on by a neighbor’s drone, something his father and friends say is an invasion of privacy.

Sikorski says he was playing video games at his friend’s house last Saturday when he heard a noise outside.

After that, Sikorski says he saw a drone hovering outside of the living room window.

“So I went over to the door and hided (sic),” Drew said, “because I knew it had a camera on it.”

Sikorski wasn’t the only one that encountered the drone.

While he was hiding, his friend’s grandfather, Mike Meacham, and a few other friends were out in the garage with the garage door open.

“We were standing around having a conversation and a drone just came down out of nowhere ten feet above us, and was just hovering, watching us,” Meacham says. “And then we all gave it the universal sign of displeasure. And then he just came in closer with it and I picked a shoe up and … went and threw it at it and it dodged it and it still didn’t go away and so, I went in the house, got my BB gun and pointed it at it and it took off.”

Following the incident, Meacham and his 19-year-old son decided to confront the man responsible for flying the drone, resulting in a shoving match between Meacham and the neighbor.

“I was extremely angry,” Meacham said. “I told him I would shoot it down if it came over my property again.”

The man flying the drone, however, believes that the commotion surrounding the incident is being blown out of proportion, saying “these individuals are kind of making a bigger deal than what this really is.”

“The drone was flying above the street, probably at about 15 to 20 feet elevation,” the man said. “I flew the drone away and then probably about five minutes later a very intoxicated gentleman comes running down.”

In his own defense, Meacham says he’d only consumed a few beers.

Currently, there is no investigation as no actual crime was committed, though Vancouver police say that there is the potential for stalking and harassing charges in cases involving drones.